


It's a sock thing

by jasminemai



Series: It's the little things in life [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Kid Fic, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 16:32:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10971096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasminemai/pseuds/jasminemai
Summary: The first thing they do when they get back from the Island, other then you know bath and shower and clean the island off of themselves is buy socks.





	It's a sock thing

**Author's Note:**

> Couldn't help myself with this one. After the wonderfulness that was 5x22 last week I was inspired by Oliver's clear love of socks. 
> 
> I'd also like to thank you all for the wonderful responses to the last to fics in this series. I have a couple more post season stories that I want to tell, if you'd all be interested in reading them.
> 
> Enjoy!

The first thing they do when they get back from the Island, other then you know bath and shower and clean the island off of themselves is buy socks. And they don’t just buy a few pairs of socks, they go to every shop in the mall and buy at least three pairs of socks from each store they visit. It’s not just Oliver who gets the socks, Felicity gets a bunch of pairs for herself and William gets almost as many as Oliver gets.

The moment they get home with their arms filled with bags upon bags of socks and other clothes, Oliver kind of buries his face in his hands as he realises that they don’t actually have enough room for everything they just bought.

So, they dump their stuff and head to IKEA because Felicity loves it and Oliver can’t say no to her, not that William can blame him because Felicity is super nice and is always smiling and she’s this lightness in his life that’s been missing since he watched his mom be killed in front of him. He pushes the thought as far from his mind as he can, because he doesn’t think he will ever forget the look on his moms face as the sword ran through her back and protrudes out of her stomach. He’ll never forget the moment Adrian Chase had pulled the sword back out and the moment that she crumpled to the grown, completely lifeless.

But Felicity, with her endless smiles and rambles, had coaxed him out of his shell, forced him to eat, wrapped him in a blanket while they waited for transport back from the Island. She’d stroked his hair as it finally hit him what had happened in the last few days and she’d made him hot chocolate on the plane ride back to Star City. He doesn’t think she’s left his side voluntarily since the island either, and while normally he would feel suffocated by it, instead William can only find comfort in it.  

“We should just redesign your whole room,” Felicity suggests as she flicks through the IKEA catalogue they’d collected on the way in. “Like paint it and choose all new furniture, hell we could turn the whole loft into an IKEA apartment and still have enough room for all three of us.”

She might be a constant light in his life, but she’s 100% crazy half the time. And by the look on Oliver’s face he agrees with him as well.

“No.” It comes out at exactly the same time and there’s this little trickle of pride that fills William as he realises that after all these years, he’s actually having a father/son moment with his actual father. One that apparently kicks but and is like a ninja warrior.

Felicity pouts for a brief moment but is quickly distracted by some scented candles she likes.

He and Oliver glance at each other again and exchange knowing eye rolls. This was going to be a long day.

****

He’s not sure exactly what they end up buying but Mr. Diggle and his wife Lyla have to come down with two black vans as well as the SUV that Oliver drives to get all of the stuff home.

It honestly doesn’t surprise him that putting the IKEA furniture together is simultaneously the most frustrating thing and the most hilarious thing William has possibly ever seen. He’s met a lot of Oliver and Felicity’s friends over the last few days but they’ve never actually been all together at the same time in front of William before. It doesn’t take long to figure out why.

William realises that these friends are more like family in so many ways, in the way that they bicker with each other, the way they seem to just get each other. He’s never had a huge family before, just his mom really, and he’s never felt like he needed a big family because his mom was all he really needed, but now, being surrounded by all of these people who care for each other so much, William is glad that he has the opportunity to be a part of it all.  

The entertainment comes when Felicity and Lyla have to take charge of process of putting all the furniture together because Oliver and Diggle just can’t seem to do it correctly. It turns into a battle of the sexes after a while with Thea, Lyla, Felicity and Dinah all on one team and Oliver, Diggle, Curtis and Rene on the other. Quinten sits on the couch and watches with William, passing a bucket of popcorn between them as the two teams race to the finish in completing their designated tasks in time.

It surprises absolutely no one when the girls assemble everything in half the time of the guys.

“It would be easier if you just read the instructions,” Felicity points out as she curls herself into the recliner with a glass of wine and a block of chocolate in hand. Lyla sits on the floor next to her, nursing a beer as she tries to keep JJ occupied and away from his father. “Because that’s what they’re there for. To instruct you.”

“How many bottles of wine does he owe you now?” Lyla asks, twisting to look up at her, a smirk clear on her face. “I’ve lost count and I missed most of a year.”

“I’m not gonna lie, I’ve lost count as well,” Felicity replies. “But I would like to point out that I still haven’t received the very first bottle of wine you promised me Oliver.”

Oliver scoffs from the other side of the room. “I took you to Italy, to wine country. I paid you back.”

Felicity scoffs in return. “If you’ll remember _I_ took you to wine country, thank you Palmer Tech. So, your point is in valid and you still owe me a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild.”

Oliver bows his head in shame and laughs to himself.

“Man, I don’t know why you try and fight with her on this stuff,” Diggle tells him.

“I’m stubborn, or something. And I don’t like to listen to people.” Oliver says.

The entire chuckles at the statement, no one more then William and Felicity as they take in the fact that Diggle and Oliver are still wrestling with a table and chair setting.

“I wish you’d figured that out _before_ you broke that chair in half but that’s beside the point. But I’m not going to say I told you so either because that’s just mean. Instead I’m just going to sit here and point and laugh.” Felicity is waving her wine glass around as she talks, and her cheeks are a little pinker then they are normally and he’s fairly sure that she’s fairly drunk already and it just makes the whole situation a lot more funnier.

“You just said I told you so,” Oliver points out with what could be the beginnings of a pout.

“And I’ll be saying it again if you don’t hurry up and get that table put together.”

****

Now, don’t get him wrong, he loves his new room and all the new stuff that Oliver and Felicity bought him today, and he loves the fact that his room is now this weird combination of new and old and it kind of perfectly represents what his life feels like at the moment. But he just can’t sleep. Like at all.

He tosses and he turns and he tries to count sheep but it’s just not working.

But he’s literally so tired and he just wants to sleep and it kinda sucks.

But he also knows why he can’t sleep, what’s stopping him and so he doesn’t want to sleep anyway.

He hears movement downstairs, just the soft patter of feet and the opening and closing of the fridge. William has super good hearing okay, and it’s not like he can turn it on and off. Then the voices start up, just Oliver and Felicity, talking softly between themselves. They’re always up late, William has come to realise. And they’re early risers as well, always being up and ready before William is even awake.

Sometimes he wonders if they even sleep at night.

William moves to the top of the stairs, where he can see across the entire loft from his newly found vantage point, and watches as Felicity and Oliver curl up on the couch under a green blanket and stare into the fireplace. They’ve got a pot of tea sitting on the coffee table in front of them and are both nursing respective cups.

“We bought a lot of socks today,” Felicity tells him, a small smile playing across her face. “I think we are officially on summer vacation mode now.”

Oliver laughs and pulls Felicity closer to him, so that it looks like she’s almost sitting on top of him. He glances down at her, a small frown crossing his face for a few seconds before it disappears. “You’ve already planned a camping trip haven’t you?”

“More like glamping trip.”

Oliver gives Felicity an incredulous look as he comprehends her words before replying with his own. “What is glamping?”

“It’s like nice tents and restaurant style food! But I haven’t booked that for you, I booked it for me and Lyla and Dinah. You’re taking the boys actual camping.”

“Since when did this camping trip turn into a team trip?”

“Since I said so?”

“Felicity, you wanted to go camping.”

“And we are. We’re just doing it my way.”

There’s an eye roll on then Oliver lets out a grunt as an elbow finds its way into his ribs. “Will I get to say I told you so when this turns out to be a bad idea?”

“Sure. But it won’t.”

They fall into silence again and William can feel himself falling asleep at his perch at the top of the stairs.

“Are we doing the right thing?” Oliver asks softly. “With William?”

Felicity sighs and takes off her glasses, setting them down on the table next to the pot of tea. “It’s been a week Oliver. But yes, we are.”

“How can you have so much faith?”

“It’s not blind faith Oliver, it’s trust. I trust you, I trust what we do, I trust that everything will be okay. And William, he’s a lot like his dad in so many ways. He will get through this because you got through everything that happened to you on that island. I have faith in that.” Felicity shuffles so she’s not next to Oliver, rather facing towards him.

“Thank you,” Oliver whispers, just as William finally succumbs to sleep at the top of the stairs.

(Oliver finds William asleep at the top of the stairs and he’s reminded of all the times he caught Thea at that age sitting at the top of the stairs watching the parties their parents had thrown. His heart breaks just a little but starts to mend itself when William is finally tucked back up in bed and sleeping safe and soundly.)

****

It’s not until just before Felicity’s due date that William finally asks his father about why they always have to buy so many socks every time they go sock shopping. At the moment he’s literally not done enough physical activity to warrant the three pairs of socks his father had already chosen.

“Can I ask you a question. And please don’t get mad.” Oliver just chuckles at William as they weave in and out of the craziness. “Why all the socks? Like I’ve got enough at home to last me for months and Felicity literally never wears anything other than flip-flops or slippers at the moment and the babies, they have clothes with socks attached to them, plus actual socks plus like fifty million pairs of booties. Like we don’t need the socks.”

Oliver chuckles again as they head towards the baby section of yet another store, because apparently having twins means you have to get quadruple the amount of clothing and accessories for them. “I like socks.”

“You love socks,” William corrects as he picks up another pair of cute baby socks that are covered in flowers and rainbows, they type that Felicity would absolutely love. It gets added to the growing pile that is being accumulated in Oliver’s arms.

“Yeah, I guess I do.” Oliver admits with a one shoulder shrug.

“But why?”

Oliver stops his looking and turns to face William fully. “I didn’t have any socks on the island. Or shoes, for a lot of it.” Oliver’s whole mood shifts as he talks about his own personal hell. William can’t help the dread that creeps up on him. “I promised myself that when I get back, I won’t ever take socks for granted again.”

“I’m sorry I brought it up,” William tells him, guilt weighing on him heavily.

“Don’t be,” Oliver tells him with a semi wave of his hand. “The past is the past, and all we can do is move on with the future.”

William nods and both boys fall back into an easy silence as they pick through the baby section.

****

It starts off as a joke of sorts. William had had to take the twins shopping for Father’s Day when he’d come up with a blank on what to get his father. Felicity had been no help, with Uncle Ray coming back from the dead and Aunt Sara re-joining Team Arrow, she’d been fairly busy trying to ensure that no ones lives imploded before the week was out and it wasn’t working well in her favour.

So he’s left to brainstorm by himself because the twins might be five but they’re also walking talking Trouble and all of their ideas are things that William is leaving Cisco to deal with when they head up to Central City in a few weeks’ time for the wedding.

Not for the first time, William is incredibly grateful that his stepmother is a computer genius and taught him how to online shop and how to hack for free postage because when he finally decides on the perfect Father’s Day present, he does not want to be spending more on postage then on the actual items.

His idea had been simple. His dad loves socks, so why not get him a set of socks. But not just any socks, personalised socks. A local company in Star City made personalised clothing items and socks just happened to be a specialty. So William orders a box of Team Arrow embossed socks that his father finds when he comes stumbling in from a late night of arrowing people.

“I figured your love of socks knows no bounds and this way, you can give them to other people as well, like merch you get at a concert,” William tells after Felicity and Oliver have stopped laughing.

“You bought me five hundred pairs of socks.” Oliver deadpans. “And lets not go giving around Team Arrow merch because what we do at night is still technically illegal.”

“Oh it is most definitely illegal. There is no technically about it.” Felicity announces as she sets down her coffee mug and kisses both of her boys on the cheeks. “Anyway continue. I have the terrible duo to attend to. Wish me luck!”

She’s gone before either of them have the chance to really acknowledge her presence and it gives both William and Oliver a little bit of whiplash.

“Happy Father’s Day dad,” William tells him. “By the way, the socks, totally from all the kids.”

(Socks become the family thing, every Christmas, Hanukah, birthday or Hallmark calendar day the person or persons being celebrated are always gifted with socks.)

((William decides that every year he’s going to get his dad bulk socks, if only to see the way Felicity reacts when his rather dense father informs her that he had to move some of his older socks into one of her draws.))

(((The tradition catches on and suddenly the only presents that are given are socks, at least for a whole year until Felicity decides to stop and makes Will go out and buy real presents for his siblings.)))

 


End file.
